The misfortune of being a teacher in India today

Bharat Ratna Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a great educator, philosopher and freedom fighter. He was born on September 5, 1888. He served as a Professor at various universities and later became the first Vice President of India and the second President thereafter. We celebrate his birthday as 'Teacher's Day' in the country as he came from a normal teaching profession and rose to the highest office in the country.

Sanskrit hymns like 'Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwarah, Guru SakshatParabrahmaTasmai Sri Guravenamah', 'Matrudevobhava, Pitrudevobhava, Acharyadevobhava' indicate the place of Guru in our country. In the 'Gurukula Education System' all the disciples stayed in the Guru's ashram and under his tutelage were trained in various sciences.

Moreover, the teachers placed a high priority on inculcating discipline and moral values among the disciples. After completing their education, the disciples, depending on their statust, used to give land, cows, money, gold and goods to the teacher as 'Guru Dakshina'. While all the professors at that time belonged to the Brahmin sect, the disciples who came for education belonged to the Kshatriya and Vaishya sects.

However, due to the political changes that took place in the country, the education system changed completely, especially during the British rule. The post-independence government has been instrumental in shaping the constitution to provide 'education for all'.

As a result, educated persons including women from all castes are also coming into the teaching profession. Nowadays the respective employers hire teachers and pay them salaries. However, the salaries of private teachers are much lower than the salaries of public teachers.

How do private school teachers survive?

According to the Ministry of Education, Government of India, there are 1.3 million public schools and 0.48 million private schools functioning in the country for the 2019-20 academic year. About 9.68 million persons are working as teachers to the approximately 264 million students who enrolled in all these schools. There are about three lakh private teachers in Telangana.

Just as all private schools are heterogeneous, so are the salaries of their teachers. There are teachers in rural areas who work for 2-3,000 rupees whereas there are teachers in the city of Hyderabad who work for 20-30,000rupees. Furthermore, the private teacher salary depends on the school management's policy, the fee they collect, and the subjects taught by the teacher.

This means that apart from the lack of uniformity in the salaries of private teachers, it is very rare for that salary to be equal to the salary of a public teacher. Furthermore, most schools pay salary for 11 monthsonly by excluding summer vacation.

These differences are not only in salaries, but also in many other areas where private teachers are lagging behind. They avail one casual leave per month. Most employers do not enforce PF on their staff as management has to pay half the money to the 'Provident Fund'. Private teachers also do not have the benefits of maternity/paternity leave, health insurance, ESI and gratuity. Above all, job security is not there.

Impact of Corona on private teachers

According to the G.O No. 1 that was issued in 1994 in the united Andhra Pradesh, the private school managements should have only five per cent of the revenue as 'profit', 50 per cent of revenue should be allotted to the salaries of teachers and other staff, 15 per cent of income should be utilised for teachers to cover PF and group insurance, and the remaining 30 per cent should be used for management and development of school.

But till today this GO is yet to be implemented, which reflects the indifference of governments and the profiteering of private school owners. Most private schools do not have a 'committee' with parents. In that scenario, it is very difficult to get accounts of income and expenses from them.

Regardless of the governments, private teachers are leading their lives with meagre salaries that they are receiving. But because of Corona, many private teachers do not receive their salaries due to the closure of schools.

Even teachers who take online classes do not receive full pay. Many teachers have lost their jobs. Most teachers did the work if they could find any work to support the family. Many private teachers are struggling to make ends meet as their salaries are low. Some use their husband/wife's income, while others borrow money from friends/relatives or take gold loan from a bank to support their families.

However, unfortunately in the state of Telangana, till June 2021, about 41 private teachers committed suicide due to lack of employment. Private teachers nurture thousands of students, but they are defeating/losing out on survival. In such a difficult situation, the Government of Telangana has distributed Rs. 2,000 and 25 kg of fine rice to each private teacher.

The government, which had only been providing this assistance for three months and turned private teachers away, has since forgotten to care for them. Due to the lack of accurate data on private teachers with the government, there were also some mistakes in providing this assistance.

The non-payment of salaries / partial salaries to teachers during the Corona crisis is a testament to the extent to which private school managements have a sense of justice, fairness, transparency, philanthropy and social consciousness.

What can we expect from future generations if values are not enforced, even in educational institutions? How private teachers become 'role model' for their students as theywitness injustice in their salaries?

According to the world-renowned socio-economist Karl Marx, "all human relations are economic relations". In other words, private teachers have no right to the benefits that the managements receive besides to their labor exploitation.

But if the private ownership really loved their staff they would take care of their welfare without stopping salaries. Further, for schools that run online classes, parents of students need to think deeply, logically, and carefully about how managements pay salaries to their teachers if fees are not paid. It should be remembered that not only the teacher but their whole family is dependent on this salary.

First of all, the government should stop showing stepmotherly love towards private teachers. Governments are encouraging privatisation in all sectors, telling educated youth to stand on their own legs, stressing that it is impossible to give government jobs to everyone. Then is it not the responsibility of governments to at least look after private teachers?

G.O. No. 45 issued by the Government of Telangana to not to put pressure on financially distressed parents for fees due to the corona have become a nightmare to the private teachers as well as budget schools.

Those who have chosen the teaching profession with great interest are witnessing a miserable life.A little justice will be done to their teachers only when the commercialization of education is reduced and it is provided from a service perspective.

Hence, governments should also take strict measures to provide 'equal pay for equal work' as per the Supreme Court ruling to private school teachers. 'Teachers Day' has a meaning only when the private teacher empowers economically and leads a dignified life.

The author is Assistant Professor, Loyola Academy Degree & PG College, Hyderabad